Glencore bondholders like merger talk, Xstrata ticks wider

Bonds of Glencore International, the Swiss-based commodities trading group, snapped tighter on Thursday following news that it was in talks to merge with Xstrata, the mining group based a few miles away. Xstrata’s paper widened slightly.

03 Feb 2012

Although the two companies are similarly rated at around mid-triple-B, and they are of similar size, Glencore trades wider because it is seen as a more unpredictable business with a touch of the "black box", as one observer put it on Thursday.